PIA rapped over jet blazes

Karachi engineers ignored warnings

A PIA Boeing 777 - the same model as the five that suffered wheel fires at Manchester Airport

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FIVE fires on Pakistani International Airline jumbo jets at Manchester Airport were caused by faulty maintenance at the airline's Karachi workshops, a report has found. Experts were called into to investigate after the fifth fire in March last year resulted in an emergency evacuation of passengers after the jet, a new Boeing 777, taxied to a standstill. After a 10 month investigation the Air Accidents Investigation Branch say some maintenance men in Karachi were clearing heat shields in wheels by submerging them in a bath of flammable solvents even though they had been warned not to do this. This cased the saturated shields to catch fire as the pilot applied the breaks after landing with full loads at Manchester. The report reveals that PIA bosses were aware of the problem as far back as June 2004 when they issued a memo outlawing the practice of using solvent baths for heat shields. But the practice appears to have continued in some cases says the report. As a result of these findings PIA have undertake a re-training programme of maintenance staff and ordered that heat shields should be steam cleaned from now on. The report also criticises the crew of the Boeing for acting too slowly in evaluating the 332 passengers. After being warned by fire chiefs that flames were coming from the wheel, and that an immediate evacuation was necessary, the report says the crew took too long getting passengers down the emergency slides because they failed to send them all down in twos. It says: "This, together with the apparent lack of a sense of urgency and the fact that some bags were thrown down the slides ahead of passengers, contributed to the long evacuation time of four minutes." The report reveals that one passenger was refused to get off the plane and was only persuaded to do so when one of the crew volunteered to go down the emergency slide the reluctant evacuee. Up to 31 passengers suffered minor injuries in the evacuation, as well as five firefighters as they helped people from the slides. The report praises the way fire crews aided the passengers. But investigators said airport personnel need to take immediate responsibility for passengers' welfare. The report adds: "Once out of the aircraft, passengers tended to remain in bunches close to the slides towards the rear of the aircraft, and were not rapidly guided away from the immediate vicinity." Investigators said airport personnel need to take up this role so fire crews can be left to concentrate on tackling the flames. They have urged the airline to review cabin crew training and the Civil Aviation Authority to review the advice given to airports about evacuations. Manchester Airport now places the local hospital on standby when a ground incident is declared, the report says. A spokesman said airfield operations teams will also use public address systems on their vehicles to escort passengers away from aircraft.